Cloquet Comes Back For 6-5 Softball Victory

May 26

Kerry Rodd-NSO

CLOQUET – After one inning it looked like it was going to be a long game for the Cloquet Lumberjacks in their quarterfinal Section 7AA softball game against Greenway. A couple of errors gave the Raiders a lead early, but the tenacious Jacks fought back to an 8-5 win and they will move on to the Final Four in Cohasset next Tuesday.

It appeared that the Jacks would get the first out on a routine fly to center that somehow dropped in for a double and before the dust cleared Cloquet was down 2-0. At the end of two innings the Jacks trailed 3-0 and the hole got even deeper, but Cloquet’s bats came alive in the third and they were off and running. A four-run third, two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth allowed Cloquet to build an 8-3 lead entering the latter stages of the game.

Greenway rallied for a couple of runs to cut the lead to 8-5 and they had bases load with one out before Jacks senior hurler Denise Rodd got the final two outs on a soft line drive and a pop fly to second baseman Kelly Carlson.

The middle inning rally by Cloquet feature strong hitting up and won the line-up and both Shania Paulson and Makenzie Korby smacked out a pair of hits each. Notably Korby and Carlson started an important rally in the fifth when Carlson ripped a double down the left field line and Korby followed with an equally impressive shot into left field.

The win puts the #1 seeded (in their subsection) Lumberjacks up against Moose Lake-Willow River in Cohasset on Tuesday. The Rebels up set Virginia 10-7 in another game played in Cloquet at Braun Park Tuesday afternoon.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com